Heat wave? So far, not even much of a ripple

To say that Baker County is still awaiting its first heat wave of 2011 is an accurate statement.

But it also understates the situation rather severely.

Never mind heat waves, those prolonged periods of scorching weather that are commonplace around here in July and August.

We haven’t really had so much as a heat ripple this summer, to belabor the analogy of fluid dynamics as applied to air temperature.

The year’s highest temperature is 88 degrees on June 22.

Almost two decades have passed since so much of a year elapsed without the Baker City Airport recording a single day when the temperature reached 90 degrees.

In 1992, the first 90-degree day was July 26.

We’re still 11 days short of that mark.

But it looks pretty certain that we’ll get at least halfway there.

The National Weather Service’s forecast calls for temperatures no warmer than the low 80s through Wednesday, July 20.

We actually bucked the statistical trend  just by getting through June 30, the year’s midpoint, without once sweltering in 90-degree air.

In the past 46 years (detailed temperature records are available back to 1965), there were just 12 years when the temperature didn’t get to 90 before July 1.

This year is the 13th.

We are as a result well behind on our average yearly allotment of 90-degree days.

There are about 26 of those on average — the majority divided equally, at 10 each, between July and August.

Notwithstanding the lack of stifling heat, this summer hasn’t been exceptionally chilly.

The average high temperature for July so far is 80 degrees, 5 degrees below average but well above the coolest July on record — 1993, when the average July high was 72.7 degrees.

June’s average high of 69.3 degrees was 5.1 degrees below average. This was the coolest June since 1991.